Part 1 (2/2)
Nevertheless, the law permits experts to give their opinions to juries, who often have nothing except those opinions to control their decisions, and who naturally give them in favor of the side which is supported by the greatest number of experts, or by experts of the highest repute.
Decisions upon such testimony this banker regards as no better than, if quite as good as, the result of drawing lots. Of course he cannot mean to include under these observations, that cla.s.s of forgeries which are so bunglingly executed as to be readily detected by the eye, even of persons not specially expert. He can only mean to say that imitations are possible and even common, which are so exact that their counterfeit character is not determinable by inspection, even when aided by gla.s.ses.
At first blush this contention of the banker is extremely a most unsatisfactory view of the case, and the more correct it looks likely to be, the more unsatisfactory. Courts may go beyond inspection and apply chemical on the tests, but such tests cannot be resorted to in the innumerable cases of checks and orders for money and property which are pa.s.sed upon every day in the business world, and either accepted as genuine or rejected as counterfeit. But the real truth is, in fully ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, that no check or order is paid merely upon confidence in the genuineness of the signature, and without knowledge of the party to whom the payment is made, or some accompanying circ.u.mstance or circ.u.mstances tending to inspire confidence in the good faith of the transaction. In that aspect, the danger of deception as to the genuineness of signatures loses most of its terrors.
It is one of the recognized rules of court to admit as admissible testimony, the opinions of experts, whether the whole or any specified portion of an instrument was, or was not written by the same hand, with the same ink, and at the same time, which question arises when an addition to, or alteration of, an instrument is charged. It must be recollected that at this time It is a very easy matter for experienced forgers and rascals to so prepare ink that it may appear to the eye to be of the age required, and it is next to impossible for any expert to give any information in regard to the age of a certain writing. In many instances experts have easily detected the kind of ink employed, and have also successfully shown the falsity of testimony that the whole of a writing in controversy was executed at the same time, and with the same ink.
James D. Peac.o.c.k, a London barrister, who has given considerable time and study to disputed handwritings, lays great stress upon the ability of determining the genuineness or falsity of a writing by what he calls its ”anatomy” or ”skeleton.” He says that some persons in making successive strokes, make the turn from one to another sharply angular, while others make it rounded or looping. Writings produced in both ways appear the same to the eye, but under a magnifying gla.s.s the difference in the mode of executing is shown. As ill.u.s.trating that point, he makes the following statement in respect to a case involving the genuineness of the alleged signature of an old man whose handwriting was fine and tremulous:
”On making a magnified copy of the signature, I found that the tremulous appearance of the letters was due to the fact that they were made up of a series of dashes, standing at varying angles with each other, and further, that these strokes, thus enlarged, were precisely like these const.i.tuting the letters in the body of the note, which were acknowledged to have been written by the alleged forger of the note. Upon the introduction of this testimony the criminal withdrew the plea of not guilty and implored the mercy of the court.”
As one means of determining whether the whole of a writing was executed at the same time, and with the same ink, or at different times, and with different inks, Mr. Peac.o.c.k further says that the photographic process is very effective because it not only copies the forms of letters but takes notice of differences in the color of two inks which are inappreciable by the eye. He states that:
”Where there is the least particle of yellow present in a color, the photograph will take notice of the fact by making the picture blacker, just in proportion as the yellow predominates, so that a very light yellow will take a deep black. So any shade of green, or blue, or red, where there is an imperceptible amount of yellow, will pink by the photographic process more or less black, while either a red or blue varying to a purple, will show more or less paint as the case may be.”
As to deception which the eye will not detect, in regard to the age of paper, he says:
”I have repeatedly examined papers which have been made to appear old by various methods, such as was.h.i.+ng with coffee, with tobacco, and by being carried in the pocket, near the person, by being smoked or partially burned, and in various other ways. I have in my possession a paper which has pa.s.sed the ordeal of many examinations by experts and others, which purports to be two hundred years old, and to have been saved from the Boston fire. The handwriting is a perfect fac-simile of that of Thomas Addington, the town clerk of Boston, two hundred years ago, and yet the paper is not over two years old.”
The most remarkable case of deception to the eye, even when aided by magnifying gla.s.ses, is in determining when two pen strokes cross each other, which stroke was made first. Mr. Peac.o.c.k does not explain how the deception is possible, but that it occurs as matter of fact, he shows by an account of a very decisive experiment. Taking ten different kinds of ink, most commonly on sale, he drew lines on a piece of paper in such a way as to produce a hundred points of crossing and so that a line drawn with each of ink pa.s.sed both over and under all the lines drawn with the other inks. He, of course, knew, in respect to each point of crossing, which ink was first applied, but the appearance to the eye corresponded with the fact in only forty-three cases. In thirty-seven cases the appearance was contrary to the fact, and in the remaining cases the eye was unable to come to any decision.
By wetting another piece of paper with a liquid compound acting as a solvent of ink, and pressing it upon the paper marked with lines, a thin layer of ink was transferred to the wet paper, and that shown correctly which was the superposed ink at every one of the one hundred points of crossing.
Many cases have occurred, in signatures written with different inks, where some letters in one cross, some letters in another, in which it becomes important to decide the order of sequence in writing. It is also frequently important to decide the order of sequence in writing.
It is also frequently important when the genuineness of an addition, as of a date, is the thing in dispute.
No subject can be more important or interesting to the business public or especially to bankers than that of the reliability of the lists of the genuineness of written papers. While it is true that in most cases there is some ear-mark beside the appearance of a signature, whereby to determine the genuineness of a doc.u.ment, it is also true that in many cases, and frequently in cases of great magnitude, payments are made on no other basis than the appearance of a writing. The most common cla.s.s of these last cases is where ”A” has been long known to be an endorser for ”B,” and where the connection between the two, which leads to the endors.e.m.e.nts, is well known. There is nothing in the appearance in the market of a note of ”B” endorsed by ”A,” that is, in any degree calculated to excite suspicion or to put a prospective purchaser upon his inquiry. If the endors.e.m.e.nt of ”A”
resembles his usual handwriting, it is almost always accepted as genuine and if losses result from its proving to be counterfeit, they are set down to the score, not of imprudence, but of unavoidable misfortune.
Thus, as the ingenuity of rogues constantly takes new forms, the ways and means by which they can be baffled in these enterprises are constantly being multiplied. The telegraph and telephone give facilities for promptly verifying a signature where one is in doubt.
It happens not infrequently that the desire to get a given number of words into a definite s.p.a.ce leads to an entirely unusual and foreign style of writing, in which the accustomed characteristics are so obscured or changed that only a systematic a.n.a.lysis can detect them.
If there be no apparent reason for this appearance in lack of s.p.a.ce, the cause may be the physical state of the writer or an attempt at simulation. If a sufficient number of genuine signatures are available, it can generally be determined which of these two explanations is the right one.
Note ill.u.s.trations of various kinds of handwriting in Appendix at end of this book. Particular attention is directed to the descriptions and a.n.a.lysis. They should be studied carefully.
CHAPTER II
FORGERY BY TRACING
Forgeries Perpetrated by the Aid of Tracing a Common and Dangerous Method--Using Transparent Tracing Paper--How the Movements are Directed--Formal, Broken and Nervous Lines--Retouched Lines and Shades--Tracing Usually Presents a Close Resemblance to the Genuine--Traced Forgeries Not Exact Duplicates of Their Originals--The Danger of an Exact Duplication--Forgers Usually Unable to Exactly Reproduce Tracing--Using Pencil or Carbon-Guided Lines--Retouching Revealed under the Microscope--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Making a Practice and Study of Signatures--Forgeries and Tracings Made by Skilful Imitators Most Difficult of Detection--Free-Hand Forgery and Tracing--A Few Important Matters to Observe in Detecting Forgery by Tracing--Photographs a Great Aid in Detecting Tracing--How to Compare Imitated and Traced Writing--Furrows Traced by Pen Nibs--Tracing Made by an Untrained Hand--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Internal Evidence of Forgery by Tracing--Forgeries Made by Skilful Imitators--How to Determine Evidences of Forgery by Tracing--Remains of Tracings--Examining Paper in Transmitted Light--Freely Written Tracings--A Dangerous Method of Forgery.
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